Statistics
by dobegirl15
Summary: Cory begins acting weird and asking Topanga strange questions. What is going on with him and why does he keep asking Topanga if she's happy? Takes place between BMW and GMW. CORPANGA!
**Hey guys! Got a new Corpanga one shot for ya :D**

 **I've been wanting to write for quite some time now, and I FINALLY got time and an idea all in the same day. Wow.**

 **Anyway, I hope you like it and please leave a review! Thank you!**

'

"Are you taking this class, honey?" Topanga asked, pointing at her schedule.

Cory looked down at the piece of paper.

"That sociology? No. I already filled that requirement with another sociology class I'm taking this semester," he said, shaking his head.

"Well then it looks like we've taken all of our classes together that we're going to have," Topanga said with a sigh.

"No more together," Cory repeated.

She shook her head.

"Wouldn't ya know it," he added, shaking his head again.

Topanga gave him an empathetic smile and said, "It's alright. That just means we're getting into our majors finally!"

"Yeah, I guess," Cory conceded.

"Come on, let's get ready to go," she said, standing up and holding her hand out.

He took her hand and followed her lead to the hallway to get ready for their first day of classes.

xxxXXXxxx

At around 6 o'clock that night, Cory walked in the door to find Topanga already studying.

She looked up.

"Topanga, it's the first day and you've already gotten into your study schedule?" he asked.

"It's never too early to start studying, Cory. You know, it wouldn't hurt you to join me."

He made a face and waved the idea away. "I'll start studying once I feel there's actually...you know…material to study."

She shook her head playfully and went back to her book.

He walked over to her and held his arms out.

"Hey!" he said with a cheeky grin.

She looked up at him. "Yes?"

He leaned down for his kiss and she made a face before pecking his lips and going back to her book.

"Did you have a good day?" he asked her, putting his backpack on the hook.

"Yeah, I did. My classes seem interesting."

"That's good," he said. "Mine were pretty okay too."

"Good." She nodded, still trying to concentrate on her book.

He watched her for a second. "So you're just going to study tonight, or what?"

She looked up at him and sighed. Then she closed her book and stood up. "You're right."

"Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, impressed with himself.

"Yeah," she said, walking to him. "It's the first day of classes. We'll have all semester to be stressed out. Let's just enjoy this last little bit of calm time together."

She wrapped her arm around his waist and he grinned and kissed her head.

He walked her back to the couch and they both sat down. Topanga curled her legs next to him and leaned into his chest.

"Tell me more about your day," he said. "What were your classes like? Did you meet anybody?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I sat next to this girl in my law class and she seemed pretty nice. And don't worry, I practically paraded my ring around so everyone knows I'm married," she said with a chuckle.

Cory grinned and kissed her head. "That's ma' girl!"

"It's kind of weird being the only person married in a lot of my classes," she said absentmindedly.

"For me too," he added.

"A lot of people are like, 'Woah, you're married?! What's it like?'" she laughed.

"I know, it's like they've never seen a married couple before."

"Well, maybe not our age," she said.

"We're not that young, Topanga. We're juniors in college."

"I know. It's just that most people don't get married right away at our age."

"What do you tell them it's like?" he asked, intrigued.

"Usually I just say that it's like always being with your best friend. Or sometimes if they keep bothering me I just say that it's like permanently living with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Except we don't have anyone telling us what to do and we pretty much do what we want."

He nodded.

It was quiet for a few minutes.

"We are _kind of_ young, aren't we?" he finally asked.

"I don't know, Cory. But who cares, 'cause we know we'll be together for the rest of our lives anyway. Might as well make it easier and more fun and just get married earlier," she chuckled.

"So you don't think we're too young?" Cory asked.

"Of course not," Topanga said. "Besides, I would've married you when I asked you. Right on the spot. During our graduation," she said with a grin. "That would've made us two years younger when we got married."

She looked up at him, starting to get concerned, but he looked at her and smiled. She smiled back and leaned up to peck his lips.

xxxXXXxxx

A few days later, Topanga had gotten Cory to start his own study schedule, and they were both silently looking over their books.

Topanga smiled to herself and nodded, pleased with how well her schedule was working for her. She had already remembered everything they'd learned in her classes so far with ease. She was also proud of herself for convincing Cory to begin studying so early in the semester. Normally he wanted to push it off until the end.

She went back to her notes one last time.

"Topanga?" Her thoughts were interrupted.

She turned to look at her husband sitting at the table. "Yeah?"

"Do you think I'll ever be…well do you think I'd ever do anything to hurt us?"

Her eyes crinkled and she stood to walk over to him. "What do you mean, honey?"

"I mean do you think I would ever do something to hurt our relationship? Like would I do something stupid and then ruin us?" he asked.

"No, of course not. Why would you ask that?"

"I just…I want to know that I would never do anything dumb."

"Cory, where is this coming from?"

"I just don't want to do that is all. I want to make sure that you don't think I ever would."

"Do what?" she asked, confused.

"Anything. I just feel like if anyone did something stupid, it'd be me," he said.

She shook her head. "Sweetie, don't do this please. You are more than worth it to me," she said, taking his hand. "I love you and I know you would never ever do anything to hurt us."

"But I didn't think I would before and I did," he said.

"Cory, that was years ago. So you made some mistakes. I did too. The important thing is that we learned from them, so we know to not do those things in the future. Right?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah," he said, nodding.

She could tell he still seemed upset, so she knelt down next to him and grabbed his chin to turn his head toward her.

"Hey," she said. "I trust you. And I know nothing will happen. Don't worry. We're going to be fine. You said it yourself, Cory. Even if every marriage in the world failed, ours wouldn't. You're not going to do anything bad, okay? Because I know you and I know you would never do anything to put our marriage in jeopardy. Okay?"

"Okay," he said back.

She smiled at him and planted a kiss before standing up again.

xxxXXXxxx

Topanga was at the stove about a week later, making their dinner of tuna casserole. She looked at the clock and saw Cory was due home any minute, as his class ended about half an hour ago. She opened the oven to put the casserole in for a few more minutes to get crispy on the top. Then she walked over to the couch to grab her book.

She took the blanket off the top of the couch and wrapped herself in it, pulling her knees to her chest. She sighed contently and opened her book to where she had left off before.

She became lost in her book and before she knew it, the timer was going off, signaling the passing of 15 minutes.

She looked at the door, wondering where Cory was, then went to the oven to check on the casserole. It was done. She turned the knob on the oven down to the low setting to keep the food warm.

She turned back to look at the door and a concerned look swept over her face. She looked back at the clock and confirmed that it was indeed 15 minutes past the time he should have been home.

She went back to the couch for her book and picked it up, but she couldn't concentrate enough to comprehend what it was saying. Her eyes ran over the same sentence seemingly eternally.

Finally she heard the door open and she let out a sigh of relief. She stood up and quickly walked over to her husband walking in.

She wrapped her arms around him before he could even close the door.

"Hi, honey," he said, somewhat confused.

"Cory, why were you late? I was starting to get worried," she said, pulling her arms back a little.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worried," he said sincerely.

She noticed that he didn't wrap his arms around her in return.

She looked down at his hands and saw they were behind his back.

"What do you have?" she asked, looking up at him.

"The reason I was late," he said, chuckling.

He saw the confusion in her face and then pulled his hands from behind his back to reveal a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

Admiration flooded Topanga's face as she saw the gift. "Oh, Cory, they're beautiful!"

He handed them to her and smiled at her joy.

She brought the flowers to her nose and sighed at their sweet perfume.

"But what are they for?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "I just wanted to surprise you."

Topanga could feel her heart melt as she looked at him and she had to stop her eyes from filling with tears.

She walked back to him and put her hand behind his neck to kiss him softly.

This time he wrapped his arms around her in response.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he said with a smile. "I'm sorry I was late."

"It's okay. I'm just glad you're alright."

Topanga took her arms back and walked over to the kitchen, opened a cabinet and grabbed a vase out. She filled it with water, set it on the table, and put the lovely display of flowers inside.

Cory walked into the hallway to put his backpack in their room and came back with his hands behind his back again.

Topanga got the casserole out of the oven and put it on the table. When she saw Cory standing there watching her with a smile on his face and his hands behind his back again, she said, "What?"

She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist in an effort to take whatever he held behind his back. He didn't let her. He gave her a look and she finally stepped back.

Then he took his hands from behind him and Topanga saw that he held a box of chocolates.

"Cory!" Topanga exclaimed. "You got me chocolate too?"

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "Surprise."

He gave her the box and she looked at it to see all the goodies that were inside.

"Thank you, honey, but what's the occasion?"

"Nothing, I already told you."

She gave him a look. "You bought me flowers and chocolate. It's not February, so it's not Valentine's Day. And our anniversary isn't for a few more months. What's this for?"

"I just wanted to surprise you is all," he said.

She searched his face for another answer, but came up with nothing.

"Well, thank you, sweetie," she said, hugging him.

He nodded. She let go of him and he leaned forward to kiss her.

She was expecting a quick kiss, but she was taken aback when Cory began to kiss her intensely. She set her chocolates down on the counter behind her and wrapped her arms around him, deciding to just go with it.

Topanga felt his fingers under the bottom of her shirt and she took her arms back and pushed his hand away.

"Cory! Dinner!" she jokingly scolded.

"What?" he asked, seemingly in a daze.

"Din-ner," she enunciated. "We have to eat this food that I made," she laughed.

He nodded as she turned to the cabinet. "Are you happy?" he abruptly asked her.

She turned around and looked at him, confused. "Of course I'm happy, Cory. What kind of a question is that? My husband brought me flowers and chocolate, and you know how much I love flowers and chocolate," she joked.

"Yeah, but are you happy in general? We got married almost a year ago. Are you still happy?"

She just looked at him with concern. "Cory, what are you talking about?"

He sat down at the table. "I just want to know that you're still happy, Topanga. That this is still what you want. I mean, are you happy with what you get out of this?"

"What I get out of this?" she asked, confused.

"Marriage," he said. "I know we don't have that much money and we got married really young, and-"

"Okay, stop, Cory. I don't know what's going on in your head, but you're talking crazy. And I see you still haven't dropped this."

"I'm not talking crazy! I'm talking facts."

"Fine," she said. "We're poor and we got married when we were teenagers. Those are facts. So?"

"And your parents are divorced."

"My parents," Topanga repeated. "What do they have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, just…so you're still happy?"

She didn't say anything, but she looked at him with concern and confusion.

"Can you please just answer?" he asked.

"Why?" she demanded.

"Because I need to know."

"What do you think, Cory?"

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Do you think I'm happy?"

"Well not right now…"

"But 'in general,'" she said, making air quotes.

He looked at her for a second. Then he looked down and sighed and said quietly, "I don't know."

She didn't say anything. She just stared at him. Then she abruptly turned around and took the plates out of the cabinet and set them down in front of them. She opened the silverware drawer and took out their utensils. Then she sat down and began putting some of the casserole on her plate.

Cory watched her silently.

"Aren't you going to eat, Cory?" Topanga asked. The irritated tone in her voice was gone.

His eyebrows crinkled with confusion.

"But we were in the middle of something," he said.

"Well, I'm hungry and I would like to enjoy some dinner with my husband."

"Okay," he said tentatively. He put some of the casserole on his plate.

"Would you like to pray?" she asked.

"Su-"

"Actually, I'll pray," she interrupted.

Cory could see in her eyes that she was still angry. He just nodded at her and let her continue. He closed his eyes and she closed hers.

"Dear Lord, thank you for this meal that you have provided for us. I pray that it would bring complete nourishment to us. And I also pray that you would knock some sense into Cory and make him quit with the 'are you happy' thing. Or at least tell me what's going on. Amen."

She opened her eyes and started eating.

Cory opened his eyes and gave her a look.

"What?" she asked.

"Why'd you do that?"

"Because you won't listen to me, so maybe God will make you listen to Him," she said cheerily.

He didn't say anything.

After a few seconds, Topanga let her fork fall to her plate with a clang.

"Fine, Cory, what?" she asked, the irritated tone back.

"What?" he asked.

"Just tell me what's going on and then maybe we can fix it."

"Nothing's going on, I just want to make sure we're still doing well."

He saw her realize something.

"That's why you brought me the flowers and the chocolate and that's why you just randomly started kissing me. Because you want me to be happy. But those things don't make me happy, Cory. I mean, they do temporarily. But that's not what makes a marriage work."

"I just want you to be happy."

She slammed her hand down on the table and stood up. "I am happy, Cory!" she yelled angrily. "Now what is wrong with you?!"

He didn't say anything.

"Cory, I swear, you'd better tell me right now."

He sighed. "It's my class."

"Which one? What about it?"

"My sociology class. It's about families. We started out learning about relationships. And we went on to marriages."

"So?"

"Then we went on to divorces. And who is likely to divorce. Topanga, my professor practically yelled in my ear that we're going to end up divorced."

"She told you that?" Topanga asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well…no, but all the things she said that cause people to get divorced are what we have. And she said that love can't get you through a marriage. She said that it dies down."

Topanga sighed and sat back down. "So you asking me if I'm happy was because of that."

He nodded.

"Cory, where did all your assurance go? You are the one who convinced _me_ that we'd make it. Remember?"

"But I didn't know all this stuff before. Since we're so young and we have no money and your parents are divorced and all this other stuff, it's really likely we'll end up apart. And I can't handle that idea."

"Cory, I knew all that before. That's why it was so hard for me to believe you. Because I thought that since my parents made it through all that, we would too. And then they didn't. So I know what you're going through, believe me."

"But the facts don't lie," he said.

"No, they don't. But they also don't apply to everyone. See, those are statistics. So, say 60% of people do a certain thing. But that leaves 40% that that doesn't apply to. We've always been the crazy ones, Cory. Why wouldn't we still be?"

"I just don't want anything to happen to us, you know? Like I don't want to screw this up."

"You won't."

"You don't know that," he said. "You never thought your dad would do anything like that to your mom."

She looked down. "No, I didn't. But I know you won't. And we can't look at anyone but us, Cory."

"I'm so scared that I'm going to screw up. And that I would hurt you. How do I know I won't ever hurt you? How do you know we won't end up apart?"

"Because that idea completely terrifies both of us. We won't let it happen. I know you, Cory. And I know that you would never want anything bad to happen to us."

"But what if I ever did do something like that?" he asked, obviously fighting his emotions.

Topanga shook her head. "We're not my parents, Cory. We're us. And we have loved each other since we were two and there is not a doubt in my mind that we'll love each other for the rest of our lives."

He didn't say anything.

"Cory, do you love me?"

"Of course I do."

"Do you want to do anything like that?"

"No, I never want that."

"You told me that no matter what happens and no matter what other people we meet, you will never love me less," she said.

He nodded.

"Cory, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know how our lives are going to turn out. The only thing I know is that we're going to be together. That has to be enough right now. I don't care what your sociology professor says. We are us. And we love each other so much, and there is no force that could break us apart. We've gone our entire lives just living off of love. We broke up like ten times, I moved hundreds of miles away, and I thought love didn't exist. But our love carried us through. Anyone who says love can't take you through a marriage is crazy. Especially for us. Don't you believe that?"

"I do. You're right. My professor says that love can't take us through but it's taken us through twenty years already."

"Good. Now why don't you tell your professor that? Are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I promise you, we will be together, okay? The stats don't matter. If the stats were right, you'd have died years ago, according to that dumb test that started your hypochondria," she said, rolling her eyes. "You beat those odds."

"True, I did," he said, nodding. "Although I still do lose all feeling in my legs sometimes. I think I need to get that checked out. My placebos must not be working for me like they used to."

"Cory, you're fine," she said monotonously.

"That's what you say, and then one day I'll just die and you'll wish you'd gotten me stronger placebos," he said ominously.

Topanga sighed. "You make life so hard."

"You love me," he grinned.

"Yeah…" she said, sighing again and taking a bite of her food.

 **Topanga's sass gives me life. For real. My spirit animal right there.**

 **I hope you guys liked it!**

 **Interestingly enough, this one shot was actually based on my sociology class. My professor was amazing and I loved her, but she threw all this at us and basically gave us the idea that marriages are doomed from the start if you have those things working against you. And almost every single thing she said applied to Corpanga. So naturally, my walls came up and I got defensive, and that's where this one shot came from.**

 **So… IN YOUR FACE, PROFESSOR. HA! Love CAN conquer (insert smirk face here).**

 ***holds up flag and starts running and screaming* CORPANGA FOR LIFE!**

 **Please leave a review! :)**


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